\u27Takings\u27 Clarified: U.S. Supreme Court Provides Clear Direction

The United States Supreme Court holding in Lingle v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. clarified years of takings jurisprudence and overturned a controversial decision in the case of Agins v. City of Tiburon. This article discusses how the Lingle court denounced the “substantially advances” test created in Agins, as a due process inquiry rather than a proper takings test. The Lingle court instead opted to create a clear four-category paradigm for takings cases, which focuses on the burden the government places on private property rights in order to distinguish takings categories

Year in Review: 2007\u27s Most Significant Land Use Cases

New York courts busily decided a multitude of land use cases due to the increased growth in magnitude and complexity of land use issues. This year, as in the past, the authors provide a summary describing some of the most crucial New York land use cases. This year’s cases include the following topics: review of local board action, takings law, eminent domain, enforcement, jurisdiction, religious land uses, standing, moratoria, and New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA)

Despite Alarmists, \u27Kelo\u27 Decision Protects Property Owners and Serves the General Good

The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London, has spurred national debate, as many people portray the court’s decision as a damaging blow to private property rights. In Kelo, the court confirmed local government’s ability to condemn property in an area designated as blighted by the state, in order to encourage economic development. This article highlights several positive examples of this sort of condemnation in New York case law, where the public interest was served by economic redevelopment. The article goes further, to distinguish several legal decisions from Kelo, where courts invalidated condemnations upon a finding that the condemnations would serve private interests rather than public interest

Zoning for Solar Energy: Resource Guide

This document is designed to help New York State localities amend zoning and other land use regulations to permit the development of solar energy systems in their jurisdictions. While it applies to many types of solar energy systems, this resource guide focuses primarily on solar electric or photovoltaic (PV) systems. It begins by describing the local government’s role in land use planning and regulation. It then discusses the importance of defining all solar energy systems that a community wants to allow in existing zoning districts and shows how to incorporate those definitions in the zoning ordinance. Next, the guide explains how a municipality can amend zoning to permit these systems either as principal, secondary, accessory, or specially permitted land uses in existing zoning districts, as well as how to exempt certain systems from zoning altogether. The resource then explains how relevant bulk and area requirements must be amended to accommodate permitted solar energy systems. Subsequently, the guide discusses how to amend site plan requirements to include standards for solar energy systems, examines how local governments can modify environmental impact review under SEQRA, and considers the role of other local boards in streamlining the approval process for solar energy systems. Beyond permitting solar energy systems, the guide discusses ways to amend land use laws to either require or encourage them. Throughout, this document provides helpful resources and examples that communities can use when regulating to allow, encourage, or require various solar energy systems. Although land use terminology may vary by regional and jurisdictional practice, the examples generally represent approaches discussed throughout the guide. The examples are intended to be illustrative samples and are not intended to be an endorsement of the content

Land Use Planning for Solar Energy: Resource Guide

This document was created to help New York State localities develop and adopt solar friendly policies and plans. It begins by presenting the local government’s role in land use planning and regulation and introduces common characteristics of “solar friendly” communities. The resource then describes how municipalities should begin a solar energy initiative through an official policy statement that provides support for solar energy and that authorizes a task force to shepherd the process, appropriate studies, training programs for staff and board members, inter-municipal partnerships, and outside funding sources. Next, the document explains how municipalities should engage the entire community in the solar energy initiative process to ensure support for the initiative and its implementation. Finally, the resource presents local planning best practices that communities can incorporate into their comprehensive plans, subarea plans, or other plans. Throughout, this document provides helpful resources and examples that communities can use to develop effective solar energy policies and plans

The Interaction of Configurations: sd−p^2

It does not seem possible to account for the presence of singlets below their triplets in two electron spectra simply from the ordinary exchange integrals. The exchange integrals seem to be essentially positive. It is shown that the matrix component of electrostatic energy connecting the 3s3d^1D with 3p^2^1D in Mg I is sufficiently large to account for the occurrence of 3s3d^1D below 3s3d^3D as observed experimentally. Analytic radial wave functions of the type developed by Slater are used in the calculation of the nondiagonal elements

Photoproduction of mesons and hyperons

The availability in recent years of increasingly energetic photon beams from particle accelerators has led to significant advances in the study of photon-nucleon interactions and the photoproduction of mesons and hyperons. This work also holds the promise of future contributions to better understanding of the nature of the strong interactions

Note on the Magnetic Moment of the Nitrogen Nucleus

Three lines of the group 2s2p^4^4P−2s^22p^24p^4D of N I have been examined for hyperfine structure. They were found to be single when examined with a Fabry-Perot interferometer, using a variety of plate separations. The line widths of two of the lines were measured. The absence of hyperfine structure is attributed to the small magnetic moment (μ) of the nitrogen nucleus. It is shown that, by using the results of Goudsmit, the measured line widths lead to an unusually low magnetic moment for the nitrogen nucleus, μ≦0.2(eh)/(4πMc). Under certain assumptions about the structure of the nitrogen nucleus, this low value of the magnetic moment leads to the conclusion that the neutron has a magnetic moment in the opposite direction from its mechanical moment and about one proton magneton in magnitude

Atomic Energy Relations. I

A simple method for the calculation of approximate energies of atomic levels is presented in this paper. It is based on the derivation of linear relations which express the unknown energy in terms of observed energy values of the atom and its ions. It is shown that the degree of approximation increases with the amount of experimental data available for use in the calculation and also how the best formulas can be obtained for each case. Several tables are given containing formulas for configurations involving s and p electrons. They are applied to the spectra of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen and the energy values so determined are compared with those known from observations. In an appendix the method of approximation is compared with the quantum mechanical perturbation method